


Rising Tides at St. Agnes

by merpl



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Agender Skye, Canon Disabled Character, Child Abuse, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Physical Abuse, St. Agnes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-16
Updated: 2015-04-27
Packaged: 2018-03-23 07:46:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3760258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merpl/pseuds/merpl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Matt and Skye both grew up at the same orphanage, St. Agnes. This is the story of how they became friends and colleagues in Rising Tide, and how Matt used his training before he became Daredevil.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye befriends Matt at dinner one day.

The other kids at the orphanage usually left Matt alone, and when he wasn’t training, he was reading. His shoulders hunched in concentration, Matt sat with his legs crossed at an end of a long dining table eating his vegetables and his fingers trailing their library’s latest Braille acquisition, a copy of Angela’s Ashes. It wasn’t his favorite, but the story was compelling, and sad enough.

A short blur moved to sit next to him, with a loud plop. “Can I help you?” He turned to the direction of the plop, trying not to cringe at the sound of a zipper being pulled up and down repeatedly on what he surmised was the other kid’s jacket.

“You read too much,” the figure said. “I’m Skye. What’s that, anyway?”

“Matt, it’s a pleasure, Skye. Angela’s Ashes, by Frank McCourt. I think if the nuns knew what was in this, they wouldn’t have even considered buying it,” he snorted, “Where’s your friend, Anne, was it?”

“Yeah, well, actually someone adopted her. But you’ll do,” Skye offered up in a cheery high-pitched voice, but her heartbeat was quick and anxious.

He could feel a headache building already from how loud Skye was, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a friend here, especially after he didn’t even have Stick anymore. Besides, Skye would probably tire of his company in a week. “Sure.”

“Mary Sue, sit at the table properly, and don’t chew with your mouth open!”

His new friend, who had introduced herself as Skye, grumbled. “What kind of a name is that, anyway? My name is Skye,” but presumably closed her mouth as there were no further complaints.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [abuse cn] Matt muses on their friendship, Skye gets sent to another abusive foster home, and Matt stitches her up.

Skye didn’t disappear after a week, though, and after a day of training and reading, he would meet up with her at dinner. For all her annoying cheer, her friendship did have the added benefit of keeping the nuns off his back about his asocial behavior. Despite that she was the opposite of what Stick would have approved of, Skye grew on him.

Even though she never suggested he put away his reading when she showed up, Matt did. He reassured himself he was doing it to please the nuns; it was just at mealtimes and it wouldn’t do to get food all over the books anyway, not that he had ever done so. He had no clue what she did before dinner, but then again, he reasoned, she had none what he did either. At meals, they had a game, where he would try to deduce from the sounds at the table what was happening where, and she would look over and see if his guess was accurate. 

Their makeshift friendship was tested when Skye got the news that she would be sent to another foster home. Matt didn't say anything, but just listened, as Skye raged about how the nuns were always trying to get rid of her. "They're a good family, Mary. That's what they always say, and they never are."

Unlike Matt, Skye was a popular adoption prospect, Matt learned, and this didn't please her one bit. Skye liked to be in charge of herself even more than Matt, and that was saying something, since he trained under Stick. Every time she was shipped off to a new foster home or parents considered adopting her, the situation spiraled, and badly. The first time she came back, she ran into his arms. Matt stiffened, feeling the stress in her muscles and bruising on her arms and back, and pulled away.

"Who did that to you?"

"Matty, I've had worse. Please, don't tell the nuns. They already want me gone here, you know that. They don't need a troubled child."

"I'm not going to tell them, Skye. Let me fix you up, though. Can I touch you to find your injuries, or do you already know what's wrong?"

"Sorry, I was too focused on running to figure that out," she snarked, but her breath was heavy and her voice blurred a little. "So you're a doctor now, too? Gimme a hug, that'll fix me up. What if they see?"

"I'm going to close and lock the door, if that's okay. The nuns usually never come in, but if they do, we'll want to take the time to get you out of the way. Is that okay?"

There was a moment of silence. "Sorry, yeah. I nodded." Skye laughed quickly and hysterically.

Matt reached over slowly and gingerly ran his fingers first across her face, giving Skye plenty of time to react if she was uncomfortable, but she didn't, and then he moved down her arms and sides, and sighed in relief. He could fix this.

"You've got a black eye, and bruises and cuts on your side. Have you ever had stitches, Skye?"

"Yeah, first time I got back here."

"You're going to need them."

Skye plopped on his lap and didn't let go, even when he reminded her he needed to get up to get the first aid kit. Grumbling a bit, he adjusted his hold on her and stood up shakily, carrying Skye over to the bed, fumbling with a drawer of his nightstand to retrieve the kit. 

He wanted to hurt the people who did this to her, the ones who had done it before too, but he didn't want to risk the damage being traced to Skye instead, so Matt gritted his teeth and grabbed ointment and a needle and thread.

Skye didn't ask him where he learned to do stitches, and Matt didn't push her to talk about what happened. He didn't urge her to report any of it, he knew already that none of them would believe her. But as he covered her cheekbone with the cream and stitched up her cuts, Matt talked to distract her from the pain. "You know, my first time doing this I had no clue what the hell I was doing, I never even sewed a jacket before. My hands were so shaky that I had a drink to settle them. Now that I can't see the blood, it's a bit easier." He didn't say that he could smell it on her, or hear her heartbeat racing in fear. He struggled to keep his voice even. "You're going to have to learn how to do this, if you're going out there again, you know?"

"I know how to stitch myself up," she groused. "How do you think the last time I got stitches from someone else was my first time I got back here? It's just the damn shaky hands when I first get back."

Matt tried not to think about how many times she must have done this before, waiting in pain until her hands calmed enough to do her stitches. Even after he'd stitched her up, Skye made no notion of moving, so Matt pulled out his latest library book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and, trailing his fingers along the pages, read aloud until his friend's weight shifted as she drifted into a sleepy state on his shoulders.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mostly fluff here! Skye & Matt being kids & friends.

When Skye was around, Matt stuck to a solid training schedule during his day, and did his schoolwork with her in the evenings, having realized that little else would appease the nuns’ concern about propriety when it came to the two of them studying alone, in a room. Matt heard whispers of older teens caught having sex and being punished by the nuns, who often spoke rather freely as though he weren’t there. Matt wasn't interested in sex. Stick was enough raunchiness for a lifetime.

He turned the page, and Skye shifted, her blur rising with flames tickling her sides. “Whatcha reading, Battlin’ Matt?”

Ever since Matt had told her about his dad being a boxer, Skye had taken to calling him that and making incredibly unrealistic sound effects that Matt would have cringed at were they not so funny.

“Wait, wait, don’t tell me!”

She ran over, plopped on his lap, closed her eyes, and ran her fingers along the Braille. Matt didn’t bother to ask where she learned, but shifted her weight to sit more comfortably and continued reading.

Skye liked to hum while she was reading, but did so more quietly after Matt admitted that the sound was a little overwhelming when he was trying to read. This time, she was humming a tune that Matt recognized, Siuil a Run. He finished with the page, and then lifted his fingers off the page, conducting with his fingers as he sang along.

“Hey Matt. Battlin’ Jack teach you any boxing tricks?”

Matt frowned. “A few. How come?” Skye didn’t usually ask personal questions, and let him offer up information as he pleased. Matt appreciated that about their friendship.

Skye breathed slowly and deeply twice. before finally speaking. “I could use some help with my technique.”

Matt thought for a moment, and decided he could likely teach her without revealing just how well he had learned to fight. “Sure.” Besides, he didn't want her to go to another foster home without the skills to keep herself safe. Matt's fighting style would do just that, because he had developed it to accommodate his size and missing vision. Skye would do just fine.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a short one!

From the night Matt agreed to teach Skye self defence, he kicked himself for not thinking before speaking. The idea of teaching someone, not like Stick trained him, but really teaching, appealed to him; logistics were another matter. Where would he teach her? Could they even find a place for a few hours? He didn't want to worry about sneaking Skye out to his dad's old place or one of Stick's old haunts, but he needn't have worried. A week later, Skye bounded in, skipping. "Sister Anne said we could use the gym. Seemed delighted that I actually wanted to work out."

Sister Anne was in charge of athletics at the orphanage. Matt knew her better than the other students did, as he did his exercises near her so she would be right there in case of an accident. He didn't need her there, of course, but Matt liked the company and the added protection from the other kids.

"Don't imagine she gets a lot of requests for that. Well, if she's supervising, that won't entirely be a bad thing, because we need to get you in better shape anyway."

"Yeah, guess I'll finally get ripped like you."

Matt didn't intend to work Skye nearly that hard, but grinned. "Yeah, guess you will."

" _Sweet!"_

He could do this, prepare her for the world. He didn't have to teach her his style. Skye didn't need the style that puts the other guy in the ground before he sees you. Matt wasn't sure he could bring himself to ever teach someone that but he swore to himself that he would do it less painfully if he ever needed to teach someone that way. He would never be anyone's Stick.

"Well, let's celebrate?" he inquired, offering her a candy bar.

"Shucks, Matt, already trying to keep me out of shape?"

"Skye, if you want to be in shape, the one thing you'll have to do is learn to eat enough and to keep sugar on you if you're running out of energy. If you don't want it, I'll eat it." _  
_

"Jeez -- I mean dang son of gosh."

Matt snorted. Skye wasn't one to keep quiet about her irreverence, but she seemed to be really, genuinely excited, as she eagerly chomped down on the bar, belatedly offering him some. He tasted it, it was barely a nibble, but chocolate was chocolate. "Thanks, Skye."


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye and Matt work out!

"They'll never catch me now," Skye declared, puffing out her chest proudly as she finished her lap around the building. She slowed to a stop and sat on the bench next to him with a loud creak.

"Indeed." Matt offered her a bite of his twix bar. Candy often set her in a much better mood about the workouts.

Skye bit down, and chewed slowly. "Thanks, Matt."

"You're really improving at all this. You want to box first or do pushups?" Matt asked, as they entered the ratty gym room. Sister Anne was no longer supervising them every day, although she did join in on their sessions sometimes.

Skye flexed her muscles. "Pushups." She didn't wait for further instruction, and dropped to the ground. Matt joined her, and no longer an effort to hide the ease with which he exercised, since the months they spent training were a sufficient excuse for the improvement. He was grateful that he could hide less without revealing what he had promised to hide, the majority of his training. Once he had finished fifty pushups, Matt pushed himself back onto the bench and waited another minute before Skye also stopped. "Sixty. I beat my record by two!"

"Good. We'll see how you do in the ring, then."

As it turned out, Skye did just fine in the room. He coached her through a few rolls and a few defensive moves, and called it a day. "You're doing well, Skye. Much better than I did."

"Yeah, how old were you? Like, six? Come on, give yourself credit, Matt. I couldn't teach someone this if I tried."

Matt shrugged awkwardly, and withdrew another twix from his sweatshirt.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just some musings of Matt's

Skye's training was going perfectly when she was sent away to a new house. Matt hoped she could keep up, and continued his own training while she was gone. His routine had changed, though, with the little accomodations he made for her. Snack break split hours of ruthless practice. Instead of just focusing on fighting, he focused on avoiding. They couldn't hit you if you weren't there. Matt could take a punch, but there were times when he might not want to. When he fought, he imagined he was fighting some great beast, as he had Skye do for motivation. And he continued to visit Sister Anne during their usual workout slot and jogged with her around the building.

Matt was relentless as ever in his studies, but he also kept fruit on the desk for snacks. Things were the same as ever, but he took better care of himself, if only out of habit. It was something.

He even had a strange almost-stint with a foster family, who came in to visit him.

They seemed nice enough, but they decided not to take him. He hadn't been very talkative.

Matt didn't exactly want to go home with them, he didn't trust them, however nice they had been. He had a training regime here, and freedom. And Matt had a family, his dad, and his dad had gone out and got himself killed. He had an almost-family after that, had wanted Stick to be his new dad so badly, but all he could do now was keep training, and if Stick came back, he wasn't sure what he would do. Things had changed a lot in the last several years, and someone else had shown Matt real kindness now.


End file.
